"Just so you know, I think this is a bad idea." The light from the Ghost's eye cast long shadows across the hunter's helmet. "Thank you ghost, your opinion has been noted, and yes it is a bad idea but I'm doing it anyway." The hunter is crouched amongst a group of boulders overlooking a docked ketch, fallen are patrolling the ketch's perimeter. Amongst the fallen there are a handful of servitors and a fallen walker. "That is a lot of fallen." Murmurs the Ghost. " We've handled worse than fallen Ghost." The Ghost tilts on its side as if cocking it's head. His guardian is right of course, since he first revived the dead human on Venus and brought him back to the Tower he had shown himself to be a worthy asset. On his first day he had donned a hunters cloak, travelled to the moon and brought back the head of Izrak, a Hive wizard that had been the undoing of many an experienced Guardian. "His light is strong, keep him safe. " Those were the words the Speaker had told the Ghost. Now the guardian stood there, his armour scratched by Cabal's slugs and his cloak torn by the claws of the Hive. " Commander Zavala would not approve of this." " Zavala is the Vanguard to the Titans, Cayde-6 would approve." He's right of course it's impossible to argue with him, he'll never start an argument unless he's certain that he'll win. " Besides if you didn't want me to do this you shouldn't of brought me back, you knew that I'd do this one day." He's right again, Ghosts are able to review the last minutes of person's life, it helps when choosing a guardian to know if they were a good person. The Ghost still remembers those minutes so perfectly... Short ragged breaths, the thud of feet and on stone, behind him the calls of the fallen in pursuit ring out. He ducks into a room, it's bare and the only light is emitted from cracks in the floor where the blue magma of Venus has broken the surface. As he enters he stumbles over something, the skeleton of a long dead soldier, the rattle of the bones is answered by roar of a fallen captain, they're close. Lying in the skeleton's lap is a knife, it a simple thing, the dull grey swirls of the blade are broken up by ripples of orange hinting of the spinmetal, relic iron alloy crafted by the Ishtar blacksmiths. The man carefully takes the blade, better to have something more than fists to defend yourself. The man looks to the knife and then to the pool of magma on the floor, without a second thought he plunges the blade into the pool, might as well make it hurt as much as possible. The fallen are close now, the man leans against the wall one hand on the magma soaking knife, the other held over his mouth and holds his breath, raspy breaths come from outside the doorway, with one final snort the footsteps begin to retreat. Suddenly a stab of pain comes from the knife ,the heat has crept up the handle and reached his hand, the man gasps in pain. The footsteps stop and the only noise the man can hear is his own heartbeat, the footsteps draw closer and the man readies the knife, the blade glowing red hot. A foot appears through the doorway and with a cry the man swings blindly upwards, the blade hisses and a wild scream fills the rooms as the knife slices through flesh.The man tries to stab again as the blade is snatched from his grasp. "Human filth!" Rasps a voice and the man is brought face to face with the four eyes of a Fallen captain. The man is dumbstruck, the Fallen don't speak, any attempts of communication had been answered with a relentless violence. The captain drags the man with one arm, the other holds a fallen blade, the third reaches down and picks up the fourth lying on the floor. They emerge in a courtyard where a group of Dregs are standing beside two prisoners; a woman, and a little boy. The woman is bruised but her eyes light up when she sees the man. One of the Dregs grabs the man, ties his wrists and then drags him in front of the woman. The woman looks up and says: " Did you do that?" Nodding at the Captain, one of the dogs is pointing at the Captain and making a high pitched chittering sound like laughter, the captain strides of to the Dreg and seizes it with it's three good arms, it carries screeching Dreg over to a pool of magma and sticks the screeching head into the pool, the Dreg's body flags for a few moments before collapsing. " I wish i hadn't." Says the man. "Good on you son" says the woman and she smiles at the man. The captain looks at the woman, draws his sword and walks over, the little boy starts to cry. The woman's smile fades and she looks at the man. "Jack look after your little brother." Jack looks at the little boy, then to the advancing Captain and then back at the little boy. "Ok buddy look at me." The boy stares through teary eyes. " Ok just like that, now here's what you're gonna do, close your eyes and listen to my voice." The captain stands next to the woman and raises his sword to her the throat. "Don't worry Harry everything's going to be fine." The sword slashes across the woman's neck and her body collapses on the grass. " Don't open your eyes. Everything's fine it'll be ok soon." The man is close to tears as the captain raises his sword, the man looks away and a soft thump is heard. "YOU MONSTER! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!" Screams the man. The Captain looks at him, it's cold blue eyes reveal nothing. " In the room you spoke, so I know you understand me and I promise you this; no matter where you go I will hunt you down, I will find you and I will end you." The Captain drops it's sword beside the man and reaches behind it's back, it draws out a knife, the soldiers knife, the same knife that severed it's arm from its body. It squats down in front of the man, the Captain places the knife across the man's throat and locks eyes with him. "No you won't." "Ghost get ready, we'll be leaving soon." The Ghost looks down at the Guardian who is setting up his rifle, as he looks down the sights the Ghost says; " I understand why you have to do this Jack." "Ghost." "Yes?" The Guardian looks up at his Ghost, his helmet hiding his expression. "Don't call me that." The guardian looks back down his sights, holds his breath and pulls the trigger.